Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Assistant Administrator John Peter Suarez has expressed strong support for proposals to exempt the Department of Defense from a host of environmental laws despite serious objections from his own staff. In recently publicized documents submitted to the Office of Management and Budget and obtained by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), EPA staff raised concerns about risks to human health and the environment, attacked the exemptions for being overly broad, and expressed doubt about whether they were even needed – adding that the proposals would “interfere with the ability of States to enforce air pollution and drinking water requirements that protect public health and the environment.” Suarez made no mention of such internal dissent when he testified before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works April 2, stating that the proposed exemptions preserve “the Agency’s ability to protect public health and the environment.” “Mr. Suarez perpetrated a fraud on the Congress and the American people by failing to be candid about the real consequences of the Pentagon plans,” remarked PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. “In an effort to present a unified front, EPA is muzzling its own experts to maintain a facade that we have nothing to fear from Pentagon toxic practices.”